


The Things Forgotten

by MintIceTea



Series: Rumbelle Tumblr Events [8]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Secret Santa 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 14:05:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8920066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintIceTea/pseuds/MintIceTea
Summary: It’s easy for Belle to ignore the gossip that has followed her to Snow White’s court. She’s a hero, and she has promised herself and her dearly departed mother that she would help to take down the darkness.Even if that means working with the Evil Queen.[RSS 2016]





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lotus0kid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotus0kid/gifts).



> For the ever-fabulous and amazing lotus0kid, who had prompted "Belle is Regina's winter soldier". Hope you like it, darling! Merry Christmas! xoxo  
> Thank you again for being patient with me while I fought with tumblr. ;A;

                Distractions were the bread-and-butter of court life. The struggles between the rulers of the land were intense. Queen Regina was single minded in her determination to make the new Queen and King suffer. And rumors were bubbling that the Dark One was more active and interfering than usual. It was a stressful time for the lords and ladies of leisure, and so they turned to gossip.

                “Remember the commoner who married the prince? I hear she’s pregnant already.”

                “Well, it seems that His Majesty is going to have to appoint a new lord in Avonlea. Lord Maurice refuses to name an heir.”

                “Understandable that he wouldn’t want his daughter back. After being the plaything of  _that beast_? It’s a testament to the queen’s good heart that the girl was welcome  _here_.”

                Snow wasn’t sure what this poor girl had been through. Belle of Avonlea who was sold to the Dark One for protection. Ogres hadn’t been seen in the land since. But by the fearful way Belle acted, Snow wasn’t sure it if was worth it. Surely the ogres could’ve been fought off without help from the demon. It wasn’t worth sacrificing a princess.

               She could only imagine the horrors Belle had been subject to. Years as the Dark One's plaything before ending up in Regina's territory. Snow knew her step-mother was redeemable, but the Dark One wasn’t.

                “Belle?” Snow knocked on the door to her chambers. For a moment she thought she heard voices from within. But when she pushed the door open the princess was alone.

                “Your Majesty?” Belle stood, welcoming the young queen in.

                “Please, I’ve told you, you can call me Snow. We’re equals.”

                “I was only a lady, your majesty.”

                Snow smiled, reaching her hands out to take hers. “I have no doubt that your marriage would’ve have brought you to court, we would’ve surely met then.”

                Belle nodded in acquiescence. “Of course.”

                “I want you to know that we’re going forward with the plan tonight. Ella is going to trap the Dark One the way the Blue Fairy told us. Then we’ll bring him beneath the castle. You’ll be perfectly safe.” Snow assured her, noticing the slight tremble that crept into Belle’s hands. “I just wanted to let you know.” Snow leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to Belle’s brow. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

\--            

                Belle bid the Queen goodnight, curtsying as she left. Snow had been exceedingly gracious to the wayward Lady of Avonlea. As far as the young queen knew, Belle had escaped her capture with few memories of her time imprisoned. She had immediately offered a room for Belle in her husband’s castle. Belle suspected that they all wanted stories of her escape, the monster’s weakness.

                Belle wasn’t sorry to disappoint them. It wasn’t their job to destroy the Dark One. It was hers. She was the one he had harmed the most.

                Alone once more, Belle settled back into the chair of the vanity. Watching herself in the mirror. She took a breath and reached out, raping her knuckles lightly against the glass as a signal that she was alone. Only a curtsy, her mistress was merely out of sight- not gone.  

                With a shimmer across the glass her mistress appeared again. “So Snow’s court is treating you well?” The queen laughed, knowing full well from Belle’s former reports that the distain was palatable. The taint of the Dark One seemed to linger to Belle’s skin and it made the lords and ladies uncomfortable.

                Belle’s skin crawled at the thought of it.

                “There’re going to trap the Dark One.”

                “Oh?” Regina’s amusement turned dark, her dark lips grinning.

                “Mm. Princess Ella has apparently been tricked by him, and is acting as bait to lead him into a trap.”

                “Where are they going to keep him? I know my step-daughter, she’s far too foolish than to simply kill him.”

                “The Blue Fairy has had a cell prepared for him beneath the castle. He’s to rot there.” Belle’s face showed her feelings on that. She understood Snow’s unwillingness to kill. But a creature so foul and inhumane must be dealt with.

                “It may not kill him immediately, but the blade I cursed for you  _will_ make him suffer.” The queen focused solemnly on Belle’s eyes. Belle thought the magic in the mirror must be making her ill. Her thoughts felt a little fuzzy while Regina spoke, and her chest ached slightly. “Remember what he’s done to you, Belle. He killed your mother, sent ogres to your lands to get his hands on you. You know how you’ve gotten all your scars.”

                Belle felt short of breath. Her chest was aching like someone was squeezing her heart. Unbidden memories of her time in the Dark Castle flew past her gaze. As if forcing her to look at them, though they remained unclear.

                She remembered clawed hands griping her arm, yanking her. A cold dungeon cot, her tears running down her cheeks as she struggled to say silent. The monster standing in front of her in a bloodstained apron.

                Belle squeezed her eyes shut. Unable to look at Regina in the mirror as panic began to flood her veins. Once her eyes closed she could draw a shaky breath. Slowly, slowly, her whirling emotions eased. Regina kept speaking the entire time, but her words didn’t reach Belle’s ears until the panic fully receded.

                “Belle?”

                “I’m fine, your majesty. I know what I need to do.”

\--

                “You’d really think Snow would be more careful with mirrors.” Regina observed as Belle’s face faded from view. The mirror shimmed as her most loyal servant appeared.  

                “She’s a foolish and naïve child,” he agreed.

                Regina stood, not having to stay by the vanity for the genie to see her. She moved towards the chair by the fire where a glass of wine waited for her.

                “Forgive me for questioning you, my queen. But she won’t be able to truly kill  _him_  will she?” The genie asked. Regina let the disrespect slide, she was in a good mood. Her former mentor was going to be captured and at her whim. And her huntsman should be returning soon to make her evening more enjoyable still.

                “Of course not. That poor little idiot is so stuck on her ‘justice’ that he’ll have to kill her to stop her.” Regina smiled. He was so upset when she told him that his little maid was dead. He tried to hide it, but he was fond of her.

                Regina’s original plan was to keep the little maid trapped and silent. An ace up her sleeve if she ever needed it. But the girl was persistent in her belief. She hadn’t given into despair like Regina expected. Every visit, when Regina entered the cell with a blade in hand and magic frizzling the girl was confident in Rumple. “He’ll rescue me. I believe in him. I’ll never stop fighting for him.”

                That last comment would ring in Regina’s ears. Annoying.

                It did give her an idea though. Belle’s conviction was so set, it only took a bit of twisting to turn it. “I’ll never stop fighting for him” turned into “I’ll never stop fighting him.”

                Just a bit of magical manipulation. That combined with Belle’s heart in a pretty little box made her the perfect little weapon for Regina.

                She couldn’t wait to see how this all would turn out.

                --

                Rumpelstiltskin pressed against the back wall of his cell. Confident that he was alone in the dungeon he pressed his forehead to his knees. Painfully reliving every second of the last few days.

                His imprisonment was planned. For years he knew he had to be here, to be seemingly at the Evil Queen’s whim. He  _knew_ this and welcomed it. Walked into the trap with a smile.

                But he hadn’t expected  _Belle_.

                He had  _hoped_ , in the cold and lonely nights at the castle, that she would return. She’d ignore his protests like she ignored so many of his other lies and tell him “yes I love you, I’m sorry for leaving, I’ll stay. I forgive you.”

                After news of her death, dreams of her were near as frequent as dreams of Bae. He never dreamed of this though.

                He was a difficult man to love, yes. But he never expected Belle to be capable of such hatred.

                The was a sound in the corner. Without lifting his head he reached out with his magic.

                It was Regina, as he expected. Though not this soon. He pulled on his guise of the dealmaker to deal with the gloating and demanding she had surely come in with. It was nothing less than what he expected. And for a while he could forget about Belle, and focus on the planning of centuries. So close to fruition.

                Just as his former pupil was about to walk out, she paused. Turning as if she had just remembered something. The smugness in her voice set him on edge. It reminded him too much of her mother. “Oh, by the way, Rumple, I heard you had a special visitor the other night. Verna, wasn’t it?”

                “Now where did you hear that?” He managed to croak out, suspicion beginning to form.

\--

                “I couldn’t get past the bars.” Belle reported as soon as Regina’s face appeared in her mirror. “He seemed surprised to see me. He said he thought I was dead.”

                “He did toss you out without a second thought. In the condition I found you in I’m surprised you’re alive as well.” Regina’s voice was comforting, but Belle’s vision had begun to swirl again. She focused on Regina’s eyes, trying to stay upright. “You know what you need to do, Belle.”

                “Yes,” Belle’s chest ached, and she clinched her hands, suffering through the pain. “I won’t stop fighting him. Never.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I left a bit of an open ending, I couldn't make any Storybrooke scenes work (Belle just came across as petty). Also my skill at angst are like very beginner, so any further it started to fall apart, lol. I'm gonna revisit this when I am a Angst Writer at lv2 at least. ;)


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